Citra Sasmita

Citra Sasmita

Artist Bio

Citra Sasmita is a contemporary artist from Bali whose work focuses on unraveling the myths and misconceptions of Balinese art and culture. She is also deeply invested in questioning a woman’s place in the social hierarchy and seeks to upend normative constructs of gender.

Born in Bali in 1990, Citra Sasmita has never formally graduated from an art institution. She studied for a Literature diploma at Udayana University (2008) and at the Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences, Ganesha University of Education, majoring in Physics Education (2009).

One of her long term projects, Timur Merah Project; Harbour of Restless Spirits, is being presented in Garden of Six Seasons, ParaSite - a painting on a cow's hide reflects the Kamasan Balinese painterly language that Citra has been developing in her practice. It represents a geography of female figures, fires and various natural elements, composed whimsically in an unfolding of pansexual energy. While rooted in mythological thinking with specific Hindu and Balinese references, the scenes are equally part of the contemporary process of imagining a secular and empowered mythology for a post-patriarchal future.

Citra was a Gold Award Winner UOB Painting of The Year 2017. She was included in Biennale Yogyakarta 2019 and her solo exhibition Ode To The Sun was held at Yeo Workshop, Singapore in 2020.

Artist Statement

Kakawin texts as canonical text in Nusantara Archipelago contain more about the thoughts or ideologies of elitists. The kakawin text that takes the theme of love and sexuality seems to use the point of view of men more often. Also, the characters in their work are more aristocratic; nobody wrote about the lives of ordinary people or servants. It is also a form of control of the aristocracy over its people.

In the Timur Merah Project, Citra tried to trace the marginalized narratives in Bali and then find cultural links through literary sources, images and texts to reconstruct a symbolic journey from a journey through the stages of life, narrative of warfare and sexuality. Women's figures take a central role in their portrayal as the role of women in historical records and readings is often missed. This means that the heroic protagonists displayed through a masculine perspective can be seen again through the process of formation through another perspective.

SELECTED WORKS